Jang Ja-yeon

On March 7, 2009, at 3:30 p.m. Jang had a word with her sister over phone. During such conversation she mentioned about the "overwhelming stress" she was going through and also uttered that she "wanted to die". Jang’s sister called her back again later in that day and when the call went unanswered her sister returned to their home in the Bundang district of Seongnam, Gyeonggi province at around 7:42 p.m. and found Jang’s body hanging from the stairway banister.

Police investigations followed and as no evidence of foul play came to light, it was concluded that she committed suicide which was believed to have taken place at around 4:30 p.m. on the fateful day of March 7, 2009.

Condolences poured in Jang's website from thousands of her fans while her colleagues from ‘Boys Over Flowers’ gathered at the Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang to pay their last respects to her.

Jang Ja-yeon was born on January 25, 1980 in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, South Korea as the middle child of her parents among two daughters and a son.

She lost her parents in a car accident in 1999. Following such tragic incident she lived with her older sister and younger brother.

She attended Harksan High School from where she completed her graduation and then enrolled at Gwangju University to obtain her bachelor degree in Journalism. She also studied at the Chosun University for graduate school.

Her debut in the world of glamour and entertainment happened with a television commercial in 2006.

She landed up with her breakthrough in the South Korean romance comedy drama television series ‘Boys Over Flowers’ that had Ku Hye-sun, Kim Bum, Kim Joon (of T-Max), Lee Min-ho, Kim So-eun and Kim Hyun-joong (of SS501) in starring roles.

‘Boys Over Flowers’ aired on KBS2 for 25 episodes from January 5, 2009 to March 31, 2009. It was based on Japanese shōjo manga series penned down by Yoko Kamio bearing same title. Jang played supporting role of Park Sun-ja aka Sunny, one of the Mean Girls Trio (Jin Sun Mi) who are offensive towards the main character of Geum Jan Di essayed by Ku Hye-sun.

However before the series could complete, Jang took the ultimate step of killing herself while waiting with expectation of release of her first two films namely ‘They Are Coming’ (2009) and ‘Penthouse Elephant’ (2009).

‘Penthouse Elephant’, a South Korean psychological thriller, starring Jo Dong-hyuk, Lee Sang-woo and Jang Hyuk in lead roles released on November 5, 2009, and grossed US$915,943 at the box office garnering mixed reviews. The film was the feature directorial debut of S.K. Jhung, who also wrote and produced it.